10/09/2026
Your fossilized oyster shell is approximately 1.8 million to 2.5 million years old.
The Geological StoryFort Myers sits directly on top of ancient marine layers, most notably the Caloosahatchee Formation and the Tamiami Formation. Millions of years ago, all of Southwest Florida was completely submerged under a warm, shallow, subtropical sea teeming with marine life.
As sea levels shifted over millennia, massive layers of shells were left behind and buried under sand, eventually mineralizing into the stone-like fossils people regularly pull from local riverbanks, construction shell pits, and landscaping gravel today.
